


trees/old and unused/test2.txt

by NovaHeart



Series: Conversations [2]
Category: The Beginner's Guide (Video Game)
Genre: Conversations, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, M/M, POV Third Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21546721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NovaHeart/pseuds/NovaHeart
Summary: Davey has a conversation with a good friend of his.Another one-shot fic that brings The Beginner's Guide and The Stanley Parable together, although this one is much more TBG-centric.
Relationships: Coda/Davey Wreden (The Beginner's Guide)
Series: Conversations [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1916794
Kudos: 14





	trees/old and unused/test2.txt

**Author's Note:**

> Most of the female narrator's dialogue is from the unused content of The Beginner's Guide. Her name is based off of her voice actress's name, with slightly different spelling.

Davey flopped down on her couch, and wondered aloud, "I wonder if he'll ever talk to me again."

His good friend from college, who now worked as a museum curator, took a seat on the other side of the couch in her small apartment. "What makes you think he won't?"

"It's been six years, Leslie."

"Wow. That is quite a long time."

There was a pause, and Davey sighed. "I still miss him. Every day."

She gave him a fond look. "I know."

He smiled wanly. "I got so caught up in everything... the fame, the praise and love of everyone else... It's all I ever wanted, was to be loved. And I got that, through showing his games to people. I really lost myself to that desire, and disrespected him..." the smile faded, and he took on a forlorn expression. "And it kills me, it really does."

She faced forward. "The people who don't lose themselves to it are probably just the people who have trained themselves to be aware of it," she mused.

Davey sighed. "I had just hoped that somehow, by making something, creating a game the way he did, that I wouldn't feel this pain so intensely. That I could channel my feelings through my work. I mean, that seems reasonable, doesn't it?"

Leslie pursed her lips. "Well, not really. You don't just make art and your problems go away. You do understand that, right?"

"...I guess."

She sat up and turned towards him, resting her arm on the back of the couch. "Here's your problem. You're hoping that if you just one day create something magically beautiful and true that it will just release you from yourself, but it doesn't work that way. You have to continue to be conscious and loving in other parts of your life too."

"That's the thing. I thought that I had been conscious and loving," Davey said, sitting up as well. "I thought what I did was right, for the both of us. I thought analyzing his games would connect me with him, bring me closer to him, so when we met in person, things wouldn't be so... messy. But all I did was talk about his games and what I thought they meant to him..." he exhaled. "I wonder if all I did was make myself seem like a sociopath. Maybe... I wonder if I am one."

She shook her head, although she was smiling again. "Sounds to me like you're just a normal person! Maybe the issue isn't that you're a sociopath, it's just that you spend way more of your time talking than listening."

He buried his head in his hands. "I can't control that," he groaned. "And this is probably exactly what drove him away from me in the first place."

She cocked an eyebrow at him. "Have you ever considered that the things about you which you cannot control are probably the things that are most interesting to other people?"

Davey picked up his head, a hopeful glimmer in his eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

Leslie averted her eyes, knowing she was about to disappoint him. "Well, let me put it this way: are you afraid that after I play this game, I will think you're an ungrateful and selfish person and way less wise than you think you are?"

His shoulders slumped slightly. "To be honest, maybe a little? I certainly wasn't expecting you to reach out to me and actually want to talk to me about anything after that."

"Right, but look at where we are. We're having a conversation. I could not have pointed out that fear of yours if I had not come to know you on some deeper level through playing this game."

"The Beginner's Guide... the game that has officially ostracized me from everyone else," he commented cynically, resting his head against the back of the couch. "I've done such a shitty thing. No one will want to even associate themselves with me after seeing that."

"Do you really think you're that different than other people?" Leslie asked, tilting her head slightly.

Davey gave her a sidelong glance. "What _doesn't_ separate me from them? From you, even?" He looked away. "I'm in no way a good person. No one's perfect, but I'm even farther from it than the rest."

She wasn't having it. "I can tell you, I've played this entire game, you've demonstrated pretty clearly what kind of person you are. And I promise, at the core you and I are very similar."

"Really?"

"Yes."

There was a pause. Davey broke the silence with a muttered question. "Even though, at times, you might've thought the games, or even that I, was cheesy?"

She let out a laugh. "The cheesy stuff is usually the truest, it's the simplest language to explain what all of us feel." Her expression softened. "Isn't that what Coda was getting at?"

"Well, with Coda, I mean, I thought his games were a reflection of who he was, and where he was in his life at the time."

"Typically a person's art and life do tend to reflect one another, yes."

Another pause, after which Davey spoke up again, "You know... I guess this is all stuff I know deep down. That I've known, all along. But having someone else to talk to about it makes me feel better, in some strange way."

She grinned. "That's what I'm here for. I'm just mirroring back at you what you already know."

His lips curved upward in a more genuine smile. "Thanks." He sat up, then asked, "Do you think Coda will want to talk to me again someday?"

She glanced at her phone, which was sitting on the table in the compact dining room. "Yes."

Davey made eye contact with her. "Really?"

Leslie gave him a nod. "Yes."

"Do you think he knows that... you know... that I love him?"

It was hard for her to keep a straight face, but somehow, she managed. "Yes."

He noticed the shift in her expression. "Wait, why are you smiling like that? And... actually, what makes you think he knows?" He caught her looking again at the table, then had an idea. "Is your phone on the table?"

"Yup."

"Did you talk to him? Before I came in today?"

She got up, then picked up her phone, and the screen lit up. With a proud smirk, she declared, "Still am."

Davey's eyes widened. "What?"

Leslie pressed the speaker phone button and held it out in front of her, facing Davey. "Coda? You're still here, right?"

A moment passed, then a soft, low voice sounded through the receiver. A voice Davey had never thought he'd hear again, and, despite the amount of time that had passed, was all too familiar to him. "Yes, I'm still here."

He felt his throat closing up, and tears stinging at his eyes. An involuntary sob escaped from him as he covered his mouth with his hand. He couldn't believe it. Coda was here. Not physically, but there was an established connection now. A connection he hadn't had, that he'd been trying to have, for a long time. A whirlwind of emotions rendered him speechless. He so desperately wanted to say something, but couldn't.

"Am I on speaker phone?" Coda asked.

"You are right now, but I can take you off," Leslie told him, sitting back down on the couch and wrapping her other arm around Davey to console him. "You weren't up until I asked if you were still on the line."

"It's fine." There was silence, then, "I want to talk to him... off speaker phone."

"Sure thing." She pressed the button and handed the phone to Davey, who took it, his hands trembling. She then removed her arm from around him and gave him some space.

He took a deep breath in an attempt to steady himself, and held the phone up to his ear. "Hi."

"Hey."

Awkward silence. Davey's heart was racing. He was sure he'd go into cardiac arrest if his heart rate increased any more. What was he supposed to say here? Was he supposed to apologize for everything? Or would that only make things worse? What if Coda hung up on him before he could get the words out? What was Coda going to say? Would he yell at him? Say he hadn't changed at all? Be disappointed because of The Beginner's Guide?

The Beginner's Guide. He suddenly wished the game didn't exist at all. If Coda played it, that would surely be the end. Whatever willingness Coda had to talk to Davey, any potential to forgive him, would disappear in an instant. Davey wondered why he had to be such a fuck up.

"I played The Beginner's Guide," Coda told him suddenly, as though he had read Davey's mind.

He froze. "You did?"

"Yes."

But... Coda _still_ wanted to talk to him? A thought occurred to him then, that made his heart drop. The thought that Coda only wanted to talk to Davey to say his final goodbye. "Coda," he quickly started, "I-"

"Davey," the other man interrupted. Davey felt the lump forming in his throat again. No. No, this... this was even worse than the separation. He suddenly resented Leslie for having Coda on the line. Why did she feel the need to have him listen in? Why didn't she just mind her own business? He then resented that he visited her. None of this would've happened had he just stayed home.

While wallowing in his anxiety, he almost missed what Coda said next. "I'm proud of you."

Once again, everything came to a standstill for him. He had forgotten what talking with Coda was like- the man never ceased to surprise him. "You... you what?" he stammered.

"You've grown since then. A lot. And I'm, I'm proud of you for that."

He didn't understand. "I don't understand."

Another surprise came with the sound of a laugh on the other end. "Well, why don't we, uh, talk about it? If you want to, we could, we could meet at the café down the block from the... the train station."

Davey was shaking. Coda wanted to talk to him. Coda wanted to see him again. He glanced at Leslie, who shrugged her shoulders, before remembering she couldn't hear him, and then he asked Coda, barely feeling his lips moving, "You're not mad at me?"

"That would make sense, but I'm not. Not anymore. I, I haven't been, not really. For quite some time."

This couldn't be real. There was no way... but he didn't want whatever dream this was to end. At least, he didn't want to be the one to end it. "Okay," Davey squeaked, before clearing his throat, embarrassed, and adding, "I mean, I would like to meet you there."

"Okay." A pause. "Davey, I, um..." Coda was struggling to say something. "I really... can I, can I ask you something?"

He almost dropped the phone, his hands were trembling so badly. "Yeah?"

"You... said, you said you, um, you..." Coda took a deep breath. "You said that you loved me, right?"

That he did. Nervous energy sent another tremor through his body. He couldn't believe he'd just so openly said that, while Coda was listening. "...yes."

He heard a light gasp. "Davey, I-"

"Wait," Davey interrupted. "You don't have to say anything. I know. What I did was unforgivable, and I shouldn't even have the audacity to think that there was the smallest chance that you could love me, not after that, and I-"

"I love you too."

That shut him up. "You... you love me?" he breathed.

"Yes."

He blinked a few times, rapidly, feeling the tears coming on, but he couldn't stop them from rolling down his cheeks, nor could he stop himself from breaking down completely. He handed the phone back to Leslie before he started crying, and she held it up to her ear and said, "Hey Coda, it's Leslie..." she glanced at Davey, then back at the phone. "Yeah, but he'll be alright soon. Did you want to talk to him any more?... Ah, okay... Alright. Tell me how it goes, okay?" She chuckled. "Alright. Bye."

She hung up, then rubbed Davey's back reassuringly. After a few moments, he started wiping away at his tears, and she handed him a tissue from the box on the stand next to the couch. "I- I wanted to talk to him..." he weakly protested, his voice wobbly, as he brought the tissue up to his eyes.

She shook her head. "You are in no state for conversation right now. Listen..." she patted his shoulder. "Get yourself together, and clean up. You've got a date tonight."

"Tonight?" He hiccuped, incredulous, before remembering he hadn't had the chance to ask exactly when Coda was planning to meet with him. He took another tissue, blew his nose, and threw the tissues away.

"Coda figured it'd be best if you didn't wait. He wanted you, and him, to be able to sleep at night." She gave him a warm smile. "Truth be told, he had been planning this for a while. He just didn't have the confidence to call you himself. Plus, he didn't know if he even should call you... which is why I had him on the line. I'm sorry, by the way. I should have told you."

He sniffled, but he smiled wryly. "You think?" He let out a breath, then stood up, his legs feeling like jelly. "It's okay, though... I'm glad you did. Plus, I've done worse."

She raised an eyebrow, slightly concerned that he wouldn't be able to stand up for long. "Not that that doesn't make it bad, but I'm glad you're not upset. I won't do it again, I promise."

"I trust you, don't worry." He stretched, getting strength back in his legs, and she got up too. He extended his arms to her, and hugged her. "Thank you so much..." he mumbled.

She hugged him back. "It's no problem. I'm glad I could help."

They let go, and she escorted him to the doorway. "Let me know how it goes," she told him, opening the door for him.

He stepped through the doorway. "I will." For the first time that day, and, unknown to her, for the first time in those few years since Coda's departure, he wore a genuinely happy smile. "See you."

"Bye!"

The door closed behind him, and he reminded himself, as he headed back to his own apartment, inhale, exhale. Everything was okay. Everything was going to be okay.

Oh, who was he kidding.

It was _b_ _etter_ than okay.


End file.
